Don't Let Go
by Tycoris 1307
Summary: COMPLETE. Katoph. What do you do when the person you love is away with someone else? An unexpected separation drives Toph and Katara to confront feelings left unspoken. Approximately a sequel to Seeing.
1. Chapter 1

This is for all the Katoph fans out there. And if that's not your thing, feel free to slip away now while no one's looking.

A big shout-out goes to HanJoo, whose drawing inspired this story and its title (see my profile for a link if you're interested) and whose gentle application of a boot to my derriere reminded me to get on with writing it! I guess this could be considered a follow-on to Seeing through the Darkness, and once again, although the story references certain canon events, for the sake of my sanity I'm going to say that the characters are older in this story (mid- to late-teens).

* * *

**Don't Let Go**

**Chapter One**

_Tap. Taptaptap. Tap tap._

Had Katara been asleep, the sudden knocking at the door might have provoked a violent response. Instead she sighed in relief at the sound of that familiar rhythm and slipped fully-dressed from her bed, picking up her water skin from the floor and sliding its strap over her shoulder as she passed. She paused long enough to smooth down her hair and straightened her clothes before she opened the door. On the other side stood a bleary-eyed airbender, who bit back a massive yawn as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He looked as exhausted as if he had lain awake all night, yet Katara had listened to the soft snores coming from the adjoining room as she lay on her bed and counted the roof beams criss-crossing over her head. The straw mattress was so soft, almost too soft after countless nights spent sleeping on the hard ground, but she was unable to sleep as long as the inn rang with the loud voices and footsteps of drunken revellers returning from the festival.

"Hey, Katara. I'm really sorry to wake you."

"It's fine," she replied, glancing into the corridor past him. "Is it time to leave?"

"Uh huuuuuh." Aang hid another vast yawn behind his hand and stood blinking at her as she pulled on her boots. After another sleep-dulled moment, he remembered the bundle of packages sitting beside the door and scooped the entire pile into his arms, waving off Katara's attempts to take some of them herself. She finally gave up and, with a good-natured shrug at his chivalry, she led the way down the stairs and out of the inn.

The night before had seen the market square completely transformed. Every building in the village seemed to have been bedecked with brightly coloured decorations of every size, paper and canvas animals coming alive as they fluttered and darted in the breeze. Katara couldn't hold back a smile at the sight of the colourful lanterns hanging between the buildings and strung through the branches of the trees. She had walked beneath brilliant orbs of blue and green and yellow as she explored the stalls in the square, her simple quest for food and supplies soon forgotten as she breathed in the exotic smells of spices and cooking meats and aged wines rising from the nearby stalls. Bolts of silk and linen in a thousand rainbow hues were unfurled along trestle tables amid the soft sheen of jewellery and polished stones laid out on dark velvet to catch a girl's eye, watched over by traders and merchants who had travelled the length and breadth of the four nations. By the time she had visited every stall and had her fill of barter, she was astonished to find that night had fallen and several men were lighting the last of the lanterns as others cleared away the stalls to make room for the musicians and dancers that were to come. Now those same lanterns had dimmed to a faint glow against the dark sky as they walked through the village, which seemed eerily quiet and still after the loud celebrations the night before.

Had Aang known beforehand that the village would be celebrating its spring festival? The more she thought about the previous day, the greater her suspicions grew. After spending most of the day training together, Aang had finally called a halt in the late afternoon and suggested a trip to the nearby village to buy supplies. There was no need to pester the other two to join them, he had told her, especially since he thought that Sokka and Toph could use some time alone together. The last words were accompanied by a mischievous grin and a conspiratorial waggling of his eyebrows, but Katara didn't find the idea at all funny. No, her stomach had twisted painfully at the thought and she had hurried away rather than face Aang's smirk, leaving the startled airbender to run after her. He had barely had time to call out a farewell to Sokka as he raced to catch up.

Now as they picked their way through the muddy square, stepping over crushed paper decorations and dropped pieces of food, Katara glanced over at Aang and found herself gazing into steady grey eyes. Aang blushed slightly and looked away, then glanced back. He grinned self-consciously at being caught looking, twice in a row. His grin slowly faded away as a thought crossed his mind and his expression turned serious. He looked at her again and Katara could almost see the question forming on his lips. Instead of speaking, however, he slung the bundle of packages over his shoulder and busied himself looking around at the painted animal banners hanging limply from their poles, ignoring her attempts to catch his eye.

As they passed beyond the last house in the village, Aang finally spoke up. The airbender was no fool; he knew that he had said something to upset Katara the day before, but he had decided not to raise the issue and risk spoiling their time together. Now, however, his curiosity knew no bounds. Like a man probing at a sore tooth with his tongue, he waited nervously for the sharp sting to follow.

"Katara, I wanted to ask you this earlier, but... there's no easy way to say this."

"What is it?" She eyed him warily, unconsciously falling a step or two behind as she braced herself for an awkward question.

"You really don't like the thought of Toph and Sokka together, do you?" He hurried on to explain, "You didn't seem happy when I mentioned it yesterday. But I don't understand. I mean Toph is a great person and I thought you liked her. Sure, the two of you didn't get along at first, but you're friends now, aren't you? I would have thought if you would approve of anyone seeing your brother, it would be Toph, and..."

Katara tuned out the rest of his anxious chatter. She appreciated his attempts to stick up for their friends, but whatever warmth that brought her was lost in the violent churning of her stomach. Toph and Sokka. Sokka and Toph. No matter how she twisted it, the names didn't fit together. She didn't _want_ them to fit together. Sokka already had Suki. And as for the earthbender...

"Let's not spoil what we have by talking about that," Katara interrupted Aang mid-sentence. Her tone was calm and expressionless, perhaps a little too calm. She didn't elaborate on what exactly they had but Aang was beyond noticing; the argument that he had feared had not materialised. He grinned happily to himself as Katara's words sank in.

They walked until night ebbed away from dawn's light, and when the clouds flared violet and deep vermillion overhead, Aang suggested that they stop for a while. His sense of triumph only grew at Katara's nod. He found a hill with a clear view and once they had set down their load, it made perfect sense to unwrap some bread and fruit for breakfast. Katara declined his offer of food, opting instead to lie in the grass and watch the sky come alive with colour. She could think of no better way to start the day and even Aang was silent as he contemplated the beauty laid out before him.

Aang watched the rising sun paint Katara's face with streaks of gold and marvelled at the fact that she was allowing him to stare so openly. She was too deeply immersed in her own thoughts to notice his attention and he couldn't help but wonder what those distant eyes were looking at. She had also done something similar the night before, he recalled.

After sharing several dances with Katara at the festival, Aang had suggested that they find an inn rather than attempt the long walk back in the darkness. Katara had looked at him for a long moment before agreeing to find separate rooms. After striking up conversation with the keeper of a nearby inn, they soon found themselves invited to join him and his wife for dinner. The food was excellent, the company lively, and their voices and laughter had only grown louder by the hour. But Katara had grown quieter and more distant with each passing hour, her laughter fading into a wan smile that soon became a weary look, and at last she excused herself to bed.

This morning, she wore that same tired, distant look and Aang wondered when she might want to hear the stories that she had missed after her early retreat. For now he could concentrate on distracting her from whatever thoughts left her looking slightly saddened, but he resolved to ensure that Katara got some sleep once they reached their camp.

"Hey, Katara, do you remember that old saying?" He folded his hands behind his head and leaned back to look up at the sky.

"I'm sorry?" she answered after a moment or two, stirring from her deep thoughts.

"There used to be some old saying about the colours of the sky," Aang repeated. After a moment, he remembered and grinned proudly. "'Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight.' I never really thought about it before. Why is a red sky in the morning such a bad thing?" He gestured towards the clouds as he spoke.

"I don't know. I've never heard that saying before." She glanced at Aang and couldn't resist adding, "I guess it was before my time."

Aang hunched forward and screwed up his face into wrinkles, waving his staff at Katara indignantly. "You pesky young 'uns," he wheezed, "show some respect for your elders!"

"Yes, grandpa, of course, grandpa!" Katara dodged a swipe from his staff as she laughed at the ridiculous display. Aang lay back, his grin directed at her this time. It was such a relief to see her laughing again, even if it lasted only for a moment. Katara climbed to her feet and offered Aang her hand.

"Do you need a hand getting up, grandpa? You must be stiff after all these years."

Aang shook his head and leapt to his feet on a sudden gust of wind. Katara turned away with a slight smile, and the sight made Aang grin in delight. His smile soon turned to a puzzled look as Katara began tying up their bundles of supplies for carrying once more and thrust several parcels at him. She picked up her own bundles and began to march briskly down the grassy slope.

"What's the rush, Katara?"

The clouds overhead were still tinged with faint shades of orange and pink and Aang would have preferred to watch the sun rise fully before leaving this placid little hillside, but Katara seemed to have other ideas. Aang sighed as he hurried after the waterbender. Perhaps she was just anxious to get back to the camp. After all, she hadn't known that he would whisk her away to a village festival the day before. Aang on the other hand had planned out the whole day in advance, and the knowledge that he would soon have her to himself for the rest of the day had lent him strength during their gruelling sparring. Perhaps he had not been entirely honest as he persuaded her to linger longer and longer in the village, but it had been worth the trouble. No amount of silver could buy the happiness that he felt that night. He just wished that he could believe Katara had enjoyed herself as much.

* * *

It was a rare occurrence indeed, but even heroes and earthbenders could have bad days. No self-respecting warrior would admit to such a thing, however, and Toph Bei Fong never usually allowed herself such indulgences. Today, however, she was almost ready to admit that she was having a Really Bad Day.

The fact that her bad day had lasted forty-eight hours made it doubly heinous. Toph had been vacillating between waking and sleeping for hours now, unable to relax as long as the iron-toothed unease gnawed at the pit of her stomach. She wasn't one to worry --she didn't believe in it and regarded worrying as a way for the insecure to waste their time-- but now her body rebelled against her mind. She continued to pace in the same wide circles that she had walked since sometime the day before, wearing away the ticklish blades of grass until there was nothing but hard, sandy earth beneath her feet. The same thoughts continued to circle in her mind as her feet wore away at the bare path, chasing an answer that she still couldn't find.

For as long as Toph could remember, minutes had passed into hours, marked only by the persistent grinding chirps of crickets in the grass all around their camp, while she waited and listened. At any moment, she knew that she would hear that light tread and the soft voice that would accompany it as Katara returned from her afternoon sparring with Aang. This whole charade had begun sometime after lunch the day before, when a light touch on her shoulder had alerted her to Katara's presence. Then the voice that she loved to hear had breathed a request into her ear, asking her to meet Katara at the river after she finished training with Aang. Her tone told Toph that it was no urgent matter but the feather-light brush of fingertips against the nape of her neck made her tremble with anticipation. And so the blind girl had loitered around the camp, growing increasingly short-tempered with each of Sokka's fumbling attempts to make conversation. His thoughtless chatter and the noisy scrape of his whetstone on iron grated against her raw nerves, while she strove to hear that tiny, distant sound. How long she had paced around the camp, she didn't know, but finally Sokka had told her to go train for a while to relieve her tension. He offered to prepare dinner and tell her when it was ready, and the meaning of his words hadn't registered at first. If Sokka was cooking dinner, it meant that he didn't expect Katara to come back any time soon.

She could have saved herself a lot of sorrow at that moment, she realised far too late, if she had just realised that fact. Instead she had passed the hours practicing her forms and hand strikes, not wanting to disturb Sokka even as the heavy burden of worry lay on her shoulders. She had heard but not answered Sokka's call to dinner, unable to stomach the thought of eating any food, much less his attempt at cooking. Only when her heart pounded fit to burst out of her chest and the sweat dripped from her body did she notice that the air had turned cold and the night insects had started to chirrup. Night had fallen and Katara was still missing, along with Aang. A completely unconcerned Sokka had gone to bed shortly after sunset and his steady snores should have been enough to reassure her, but it no longer did.

Toph growled under her breath and cracked her knuckles, one by one, savouring the loud pops that her friends hated. An hour ago the noisy chatter of birds flitting through the trees enclosing their camp had replaced the dwindling chirps of the crickets, and now she could feel sunrise in the gradually warming air and the dew beading the grass underfoot. Another day was born, and where was Katara? Where was Aang, for that matter?

The logical answer was that they were together. Aang and Katara, off alone with one another, and since they had not breathed a word of it to Sokka or Toph, it was clearly a private assignation. Katara and Aang. She could imagine it now. Aang had whisked her away to a special place where they could be alone, enjoying the hours that stretched before them. She could almost hear the shared laughter and the nervous giggles quickly stifled as he moved closer to her, conversation dying away as Katara blushed. Would he whisper sweet, empty words in her ear? They would have eaten together, of course, and maybe they had broken off small bites to feed each other, leaning into one another until the inevitable happened. A kiss.

"Spirits be damned!" Toph raked her hands through her dark hair as if she could tear her thoughts out of her very head. Her fists clenched until the skin stretched painfully across her knuckles, but it wasn't enough. She had to do something before she went any crazier. It no longer mattered that her sightless eyes and head ached after so many hours without rest or that it felt like her very bones ground together under the stress. Toph let out another angry growl and paused for another moment to listen. All she heard were Sokka's deep snores coming from the other side of the clearing, and so she turned and strode away into the trees.

Toph padded through the dew-stained grass as she headed towards the river, where the trees thinned out along the bank and the sandy earth turned to familiar, welcoming gravel. She had trained there for several hours the evening before and now she intended to drill there again until she was tired enough to sleep, or until Aang and Katara finally decided to return. When the sound of rushing water grew louder, almost drowning out other noises, and the texture of the dirt changed underfoot, she knew that she had arrived. She drew a deep breath and released it slowly, then tried a few more times when it failed to calm her in the slightest. She stepped into her horse stance, closed her eyes, and focused on each breath. She sought to return to that place of calm, from which could stand and direct the very rocks to move. One, two, she counted inside her head as she began throwing straight-arm punches, only remembering at the last second to curb her power. Two slender ridges shot through the ground from her body, advancing mere inches with each punch and each stamp. She gradually progressed to the more advanced forms, and each time her feet struck the ground, she saw a little further through the vibrations and through the ground.

Toph stamped down more forcefully and concentrated on the shocks rippling through the earth. She could hear the birds darting from tree to tree but with determined concentration she could feel them landing on the individual branches. Her vision grew to encompass an ever wider area, a thousand details adding themselves to her mental map. She could count the footsteps of the insects crawling in the undergrowth, she could even feel the sap pulsing slowly through the roots of the ancient trees around her, but she could not feel the one thing she sought. Sokka still lay in his bed roll, each snore vibrating through the length of his body, beside the grazing bulk of Appa and the flashes that were Momo as he pounced after squirrels. But there were no tell-tale vibrations from approaching footsteps or the distance murmur of voices. Perhaps they were out of range, or maybe Aang was showing off his airbending once again, or perhaps they were not on the move but holed up somewhere as their date continued from the night before. Or maybe something had happened to them and she could not hear their distress, would not detect them until it was too late...

Another violent stamp cut off that thought as she sought to see a little further through the minute tremors in the ground. She didn't notice the rumble that shuddered through the ground as she continued to move; she was too intent on reading the echoes that came back to her from a mile around. Toph let the last tremors die away as she collected her strength and prepared to try again. She had to try again. Katara was somewhere out there, and she wanted to find her. Toph _needed_ to find her, before her treacherous thoughts overwhelmed her common sense. Before she began to wonder if she was imagining things.

Before she realised that she was already losing Katara to Aang.

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_To be continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

Here it is, chapter two for your reading pleasure. Self-destructive laptops and exams can't stop me from continuing to write, only delay me. Enjoy!

And I want to say a big "Thank you!" to everyone who's reviewed. Mevas, it's my pleasure! Kitsune, thank you and I hope you enjoy the rest of the story. Big Fan, thanks, especially for the food for thought...

Legalese: In spite of the nice letter I wrote to Santa and the liberal offerings of mince pies, I still don't own the characters.

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**Don't Let Go**

**Chapter Two**

Katara listened to the twittering song of the sparrowkeets as they chased another through the branches overhead and smiled to herself. The warm sunlight spilled through the leaves and dappled her skin in patterns of gold and caramel. Spring held the Earth Kingdom in its warm embrace and for a moment or two, she could almost forget the Avatar's mission and let herself imagine that she was just a girl walking in the woods. When they had first reached the forest, she had felt her heart lift in her chest at the thought that they would soon be reunited with Toph and Sokka. She would soon be reunited with her list of chores as well, and that realisation did diminish her pleasure slightly. At this moment, she wanted nothing more than to enjoy a lazy, meandering stroll through the woods and she slowed her pace as she basked in the sunshine and the birdsong.

Aang hurtled past her on his air scooter and shot straight up the trunk of one tree and down another. He raced in a wide circle around her, grinning the entire time. The parcels tied to his back seemed to have no effect on his buoyant mood, whereas Katara's own load encouraged her to linger and take her time. She smiled back at Aang, touched by his infectious energy, and gestured for the impatient airbender to go on ahead. His grin turned cocky as the air scooter shot forwards but he continued to gaze at Katara from his backwards perch. She opened her mouth to warn him to look where he was going, but who was she to spoil his fun? Instead she watched him as he began to weave through the trees, turning effortless loops and figures of eight without ever taking his eyes off her.

The crash echoed in the still air. Aang collided with the tree so hard that the earth trembled and bucked beneath her feet. No, she realised as the forest floor lurched again and she fell to her knees, this was something else. She clawed at the ground to anchor herself as the tremors continued. The sparrowkeets flew clamouring up from the treetops and she heard Appa's deep groan in the distance as he followed them. Aang leapt to his feet and immediately slammed his fist into the ground, trying to drive back the disruption by sheer force.

"What's going on? Is it an earthquake?" Katara shouted over the deep grinding of stone and earth that echoed and shuddered in the depths of her bones. It felt as if the very heart of the planet was shifting and turning far below them, its colossal beat hammering up through the earth to them.

"I don't know, but it's not a quake," Aang yelled back as he scrambled up and helped her to her feet. "Come on!"

He grabbed her wrist and started running towards the clearing where they had made their camp, leaping over the sudden hillocks and ditches forming under their feet as the ground tore itself apart. It was all Katara could do to keep up with Aang without tripping or falling as they raced across the leaf-strewn ground, dashing towards the source of the tremors.

They burst out of the trees into a large glade and Katara immediately took stock. A large circle of flattened grass showed where Appa had been lying. A bedroll lay a few yards away, snoring gently to itself. Sokka gave whole meaning to the phrase '_dead to the world'_. He hadn't yet noticed the ruckus, but as Katara watched, vast cracks began to split open the turf and raced towards him. Sokka woke with a yell as he found himself bouncing along the heaving, leaping ground. He struggled to free his arms as he went flopping along the shockwave like a landed fish, cursing all the while.

Before Katara could stop him, Aang stomped into a wide sitting stance, driving his feet into the ground up to the ankles for balance. He thrust his palms out in front of him as hard as he could. Katara _saw_ the shockwaves change direction. The ripples in the ground rushed away from them and back towards their source as another wave ground towards them.

Katara winced at the shuddering crash of earth meeting stone and instinctively raised a hand to cover her eyes. Rocks crumbled into dust that blew harmlessly past her face and then it was all over. The silence fell so abruptly that it almost hurt her ears. Sokka slid to a halt at last on the other side of the clearing and scrambled free of his sleeping bag, turning the air blue with a string of curses. She fully understood his annoyance; she could feel the bruises rising on her knees and elbows from her own close encounters with the ground. She blinked away the dust and grit that stung her eyes as Aang relaxed his stance.

The smooth, level glade was no more. The grassy turf had split open under the force of deeply buried stones erupting through the soil, now lying at haphazard angles and jutting out from the newly created ridges and hollows. Appa groaned his displeasure as he tried to find a place to settle among the jagged, broken rocks and finally resigned himself to lying across a large sheet of stone. Aang went to the bison and rubbed his massive forehead, murmuring a few comforting words in his ear.

"What was that?" Katara asked as she joined Aang and began combing her fingers through Appa's thick white fur. The sky bison opened his eyes and gazed benevolently at the two of them, letting out a contented rumble. Under the joint attentions of his beloved master and his friend, Appa was happy to let himself forget about the disturbance.

"Earthbending," Aang replied quietly. "That was just the fallout that reached us. Someone was exerting a great deal of power."

Katara glanced around the camp again. Sokka stood by his bedroll, his shirt dropped carelessly by his feet as he examined his bare chest in the sunlight and catalogued each bruise with an indignant sound. Momo had hidden away from all the violence and noise in Sokka's bedroll and now lay chattering to himself. Katara felt her heart sink beneath the weight of realisation.

"I don't see Toph anywhere." She looked around again and only confirmed something that she already knew. An earthbender had caused those tremors and their earthbender was coincidentally missing from the camp, an earthbender whose powers were only rivalled by her quick temper. Katara met Aang's eyes and saw the same thought reflected there.

"Sokka." When her brother continued to mutter and grumble to himself, Katara shouted more loudly. "Sokka!"

"What?" he snapped back. Sokka had only been awake for a few minutes, yet he already knew that it was going to be a bad day. And it had started out so well, he thought mournfully. He had been in the middle of a fabulous dream involving a bed of silken sheets and gossamer drapes, soft music playing in the background and a rose held between his teeth in wordless invitation. Suki had been about to walk through the door... and then a certain earthbender had decided to play percussion on his spine.

"Where's Toph?" Katara was beginning to feel like a broken record, skipping endlessly over the same few words, but her questions had received few answers so far.

"I don't know, but if you find her before I do..." Sokka growled as he picked up his shirt and pulled it back over his head. He didn't bother to finish his threat, because he couldn't think of anything that he could do to the younger girl that wouldn't come back to haunt him, and probably leave more bruises.

"I bet she's gone to train," Aang told the waterbender brightly. "If some idiot tried to attack Toph, we'd have heard a lot more commotion than that. There would have been screams, for a start."

"There _were_ screams." Katara pointed at Sokka, who had crawled back into his bedroll and pulled it up to his ears.

"Those don't count," Aang chuckled, and then he sobered abruptly. "We should go find Toph. She's probably all right, but..." He didn't finish and Katara knew what he was thinking. It was unusual for Toph to be awake at this time of morning, much less to begin training this early or in a space as crowded as the woods.

"You're right." Katara laid down her packages near Appa, then turned back to Aang. "I think the tremors were coming from the north. You might be able to see something from the air. I'll head towards the river and check the banks." A guilty thought flashed into her mind: hadn't she asked Toph to meet her at the river, so very long ago? She had completely forgotten about it during the hectic day before, but she suddenly wondered if Toph had been waiting this entire time.

"All right. If we can't find her, we'll meet back here in two hours," Aang declared as he snapped open his glider. A moment later, he had disappeared over the trees. Katara knelt by her brother and shook him gently.

"Hey, Sokka, I know you're still awake. We're going to look for Toph, but you can start making breakfast if you get hungry."

She received an exaggerated snore in response. Momo crept out of the bottom of the sleeping roll and trampled circles on Sokka's stomach before he lay down. Sokka made no protest and as the lemur's enormous ears began to droop, Katara envied their easy ability to fall asleep at a moment's notice. Despite a hot meal that she hadn't cooked herself, a long hot bath and a warm bed, Katara had lain awake most of the night. The longer that they lingered in the village, the more she found herself thinking of the people they had left behind, and the more often she had to remind herself that Sokka and Toph could fend for themselves.

They would be perfectly safe, and anybody foolish enough to attack them would soon find themselves face to face with one of the world's greatest earthbenders. Sokka could probably do some damage too. Katara had reminded herself of all this, frequently, but the seed of concern had planted itself in her mind.

Now faced with Toph's absence, the seed had grown into a tall stem which grew another leaf for each anxious thought of hers, and at any moment it would begin to put out flowers of genuine fear. She had tried to appear calm and collected in front of Aang, but she had been unable to dispel this vague sense of unease and the feeling that she was needed elsewhere.

Katara strode though the trees as quickly as she could, barely able to keep from breaking into a frantic run, but she refused to cave in to the blind panic. Her most pressing concern at this moment was finding Toph. She needed to talk to her before anything else happened.

If Sokka or Aang asked, she would simply tell them that she wanted to find Toph before any more inadvertent earthbending damaged their camp further. She knew herself, however, and she knew that she needed to see Toph for more reasons than that.

She needed to see Toph's face again and know that nothing had befallen her earthbender. She needed to hear her calm voice telling Katara that everything would be all right. But above all, she needed to simply be near Toph, until she had no more cause to be distressed because they were no longer apart.

"Toph," Katara whispered to the winds, "where did you go?"

* * *

"Spirits be!" The curse tore itself from Toph's lips as she summoned the last of her strength and slammed her fist into the ground. Rocks smashed apart beneath the force of her desperate rage. She stumbled as the earth rebelled and bucked beneath her feet. She found herself kneeling in the dirt, breath sawing in her lungs, hair plastered to her face with sweat. Every muscle throbbed, every joint hurt, every part of her body protested her aggressive exertions after so long without food or sleep. Now that she was still, she realised how utterly exhausted she was in both body and mind.

It wasn't weakness to remain kneeling until she caught her breath. If she was too tired to hold up her head while she gulped down breaths of air, she wouldn't call that weakness either. But when she tried to lever herself upright and nearly toppled as her arms collapsed under her, she realised that she _had_ become weak. After all, it was not the exertion of a battle that had placed in this position but the endless worrying over another.

On her third attempt, Toph managed to stagger to her feet and stumbled down to the water's edge. The shock of the cold water on her skin made her gasp and helped clear some of the fatigue from her brain as she scrubbed the dust from her face and hands, arms and feet. When she had cleansed herself of the dirt and her worry, she trudged her way back up the river bank until she banged into one of the large boulders scattered along the fringe of the trees. It was easier to just slump down against its rough surface instead of trying to stumble around it. Toph lowered her head into her hands and massaged tenderly at her temples as she allowed herself to admit that she was too weary and too sore to go any further.

When Katara returned to the camp, she would come to the river sooner or later. Until then, Toph could afford to curl up in the shade of the boulder and wait. The worry and the fear that had plagued her for so many hours were silenced at last and perhaps she could finally rest. She only needed to close her eyes for a moment. Just for a moment or two, until her head stopped aching so much. Just until Katara returned...

* * *

_To be continued…_


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note: Or should that be author's warning? I don't have a romantic bone in my body, so this chapter presented some unique challenges. But what the hey, it's Singles' Awareness Day --or Valentine's Day for those of you with someone special-- so pour on the sap and dig in! I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it, and feel free to leave any comments in a review.

* * *

**Chapter Three**

The music of water playing over smoothened pebbles called out to her, its soft melody of trickles and splashes drawing her inexorably nearer to the water's edge. Katara found her steps veering closer and closer to the river that she knew lay just a few hundred yards away, and at last she gave into the temptation.

_After all, Toph __**could **__be near the river_, she reasoned with herself. It seemed unlikely, but as her conscience continued to remind here, there was a slim chance that Toph had lingered near the river after Katara's request the day before. Along the river, the trees grew some distance from the riverbanks, whose winding lengths were dotted with small inlets and beaches of rough gravel that might tempt an earthbender weary of walking on grass. Katara would check there because she prided herself on her thoroughness in her actions, she decided, and not because she was presenting feeble excuses to herself.

Katara followed the line of the bank as she looked for any sign of Toph, pausing at an overhang where the long grass drooped down to brush across the rushing waters below. She and Aang had lain there after their waterbending session the day before to let the sun's warmth dry their backs, sprawling on their bellies in the grass as they giggled at the sensation of soft blades tickling against their skin. When she looked up, she had found Aang gazing intently at her, his eyes darting to her lips now and then. She had known exactly what he was considering, and instead she turned away and dropped her hand into the water under the pretext of checking Sokka's fish traps. The swift current had smashed all but one of the flimsy wicker cages, which contained a very angry frog. Fortunately the hopping amphibian had distracted the Avatar from his thoughts as he chased it gleefully across the water.

Katara sighed as she gazed down at the river, unable to resist tracing her fingers in the cool flow. It had been an idyllic moment for young lovers, and yet she had found herself with the wrong person. She frowned at her reflection, sticking out her lip for effect, and the dusky-skinned girl in the water pouted back. She looked into those pale blue eyes and reminded herself why she was there. She could agonise over her dilemma later. Right now there were more pressing matters to attend to.

The young waterbender jumped to her feet and brushed the grass from her clothes. She glanced guiltily at the trees as she did so, almost expecting Aang to appear from the trees and ask why she still hadn't found Toph.

_Looks like I was wrong. There's nothing here but trees and a few boulders_, she thought with a sigh. The lichen-spattered boulders with their coats of moss showed no signs of recent earthbending activity. But among them, Katara spied dark hair and felt her stomach turn over.

Now she could recognise the curve of a shoulder, a jutting elbow, a bent knee. The dust and dirt caking the earthbender's clothes painted the normally vibrant green and gold with shades of worn grey, blending her into the surrounding rocks. Katara could finally make out the small figure slumped on the ground, her elbows propped on her knees and her head cupped in her hands. Katara's mind whirled back to another time, another place. She had only seen such despair once before, after their escape from Won Shi Tong's library, whereupon Toph had been forced to admit that she had not been able to protect Appa.

Katara hurried up the slope towards the earthbender, but she stopped just before she could Toph. The younger girl's shoulders rose and fell in a steady cadence and her sightless eyes were propped half-open, but Katara wondered if the girl was even conscious, much less aware of her presence. Katara dropped to her knees and peered up at Toph's face, hidden behind her hands and tangled black bangs. Cautiously she laid a hand on Toph's shoulder.

"Toph." She squeezed as gently as she could, barely making contact, as she tried to wake the girl and found herself afraid to do so. She didn't know what might greet her. "Are you awake?"

A bolt of tension ran through the muscles beneath her hand, bunching them into tight knots. She felt the transition as the girl moved between dozing and waking. Katara traced her fingertips along Toph's shoulder again.

"Toph, it's me. It's Katara. Please wake up. I'm worried about you."

A moment later, Toph lifted her head with great effort. Her normally pale face was chalk-white, throwing the dark purple marks under her eyes into stark contrast. Her small, fine mouth was drawn into a tight line of unspoken anger. The sight of the girl made Katara ache to reach out to her but the stiffness in Toph's manner made her wary.

"Katara." A perfectly neutral greeting delivered without inflection or emotion.

"Toph." Her tone overflowed with relief that Toph spoke and concern for Toph's ragged appearance. "What's wrong?"

When the earthbender said nothing, Katara leaned closer and lowered her voice for Toph's ears alone. "Please, Toph, tell me what's wrong. You're starting to frighten me."

"That's rich." The usual edge of sarcasm in Toph's voice sounded forced and brittle. Although she was blind, she fixed her eyes past Katara's head in a deliberate gesture of dismissal. Normally such a slight would have brought Katara's temper roaring to the fore but today the anger was eclipsed by her mounting fear. She had expected that finding Toph would calm her agitation, not increase it tenfold.

Ignoring the way that Toph bristled at the contact, Katara brushed aside the girl's bangs and laid her palm against her forehead. She smoothed her hand down the curve of a pale cheek, no longer checking for fever as much as indulging her need to touch Toph. The younger girl's expression was full of annoyance, yet her body betrayed her as she leaned unconsciously into the waterbender's palm. Katara traced her fingers along one fine cheekbone and saw long eyelashes flutter, the other girl's eyes slipping closed in spite of herself. Katara looked at the earthbender and at last she could see through the façade.

On closer inspection, Toph's eyebrows were not knit with anger but a distress born of fear. Those delicate lips were tight with worry that she would never reveal to anyone else. She leaned into Katara's touch with an edge of desperation as her hands flexed on her knees, denied the opportunity to reach out to Katara in return. The Water Tribe girl longed to pull Toph into her arms and soothe away the wordless fear that she saw, but she knew that Toph wouldn't allow it; at least, not yet. Katara forced herself to remain patient as she knelt before her friend in unspoken supplication.

"I'm right here, Toph." She gazed into that downturned face, half-concealed behind the ragged curtains of her hair. "And I'm sorry, truly sorry."

That got Toph's attention. She turned her head to gaze sightlessly in Katara's direction.

"Sorry? What for?" Instead of the note of challenge that Katara expected to hear, the younger girl sounded genuinely confused. Her brows furrowed and Katara found herself already reaching out to stroke those puzzled lines away. Again, she reminded herself not to rush Toph. Katara rarely found herself wishing to touch another person so much, but Toph could never see the honest contrition on her face, and so she sought to express it in other ways.

"I'm sorry that I worried you. I didn't mean to be away for so long," Katara said, wondering what she could say to Toph to ease her distress. She knew that Toph sometimes grew jealous of Aang, but how much of the truth could she reveal without hurting Toph's feelings?

"You were with Aang." Apparently none. Toph's tone was stripped of any emotion, as if she had taken a knife to her own feelings and pared away the excess. Yet Katara knew that underneath that calm, detached exterior lay a wellspring of pain, and she kicked herself for creating it.

"Yes." Katara didn't mention the dinner or the inn. She had no reason to feel guilty, but she wanted to spare Toph any further pain.

"Without letting me know."

"What?!" Now that was unfair. Katara had deliberately left a message with Sokka, and…

"All night," Toph added coldly, interrupting Katara's mental protest.

_Is that what this is all about?_ Katara wondered. They had spent the night apart before, several times in fact, so the strength of Toph's reaction startled her. Toph never clung to her or protected too much when they said goodbye; if Aang or Sokka were nearby, a subtle touch of their hands could be all the farewell they needed, always accompanied by a silent promise. It happened infrequently, but on those rare occasions that Katara left with Aang, she always said goodbye to Toph first.

Katara now wondered if Toph's anxiety really stemmed from a single night of separation, but she refused to consider her own reactions —lying awake most of the night in the inn, fretting constantly on the walk back to camp— within those same limitations.

"Is that what's bothering you? Listen to me. Nothing happened, nothing at all." As much as it pained her to think that Toph might suspect her of double-dealings, she also knew that too strong a denial would sound just as incriminating as making none at all. She forced herself to take a deep breath, drawing on her greatest reserves of patience as she reminded herself that Toph was in pain too. She blew out a sigh.

"Toph, let me start again."

The earthbender raised an eyebrow but nodded. This time, Katara didn't fight her need for physical contact. She only noticed her failure when she found her fingertips tracing along Toph's brow, smoothing away the deeply etched lines with tender strokes. The earthbender didn't blink as Katara passed within a hair's breadth of her misty eyes, facing her with a wordless trust that warmed Katara's heart.

"Aang and I spent most of yesterday training. Afterwards, he suggested we take a trip to the market and I agreed. We needed more food and, well, I just needed a little break and a change of scenery. I couldn't find you anywhere." Her first thought upon hearing Aang's invitation had been to invite Toph and Sokka to join them, but she had not found them in the camp. The thought that they had taken off in search of adventure and left Katara behind once again had filled her with envy. Aang's well-intended invitation had simply rubbed salt into her wound, and so she had sought an adventure of her own with Aang. Anything was better, she had thought, than wondering what Sokka might be saying to Toph, whether her brother could make the younger girl blush, or laugh, or give him a smile laced with promises.

"There was a festival in the village. By the time we finished shopping at the market, Aang was too tired to walk back," Katara continued. Toph muttered something under her breath that sounded like _typical airbender_. Katara let the comment pass without remark. "We found an inn, we went to sleep in our rooms, and we were on the road before dawn. That's all that happened."

After a long moment, Toph asked tersely, "Did he try to kiss you?"

Katara chuckled softly; so that was what Toph was fretting over. She had never considered Toph the possessive type before.

"He tried. We… There was dancing at the festival, and he tried. That's as far as he got." She looked down at her hands in her lap and then reached for Toph's hands. The earthbender's clenched fists slowly relaxed as Katara teased her fingers apart. Toph entwined their fingers and squeezed, and Katara found that she could breathe again. There was forgiveness in that gesture, and that was everything that she wanted right now.

"I really didn't think you'd get this anxious. Aang told me that he left a message with Sokka. I guess he didn't tell you where we were going?" Katara asked. Toph shook her head wordlessly and Katara winced, fully understanding the girl's pain now. As Katara looked at Toph's pale, drawn complexion and the dark marks under her eyes, she understood what the proud girl refused to tell her.

"Toph, did you get any sleep last night? Did you rest at all?" _Please, don't tell me that you were waiting this entire time. Please_, Katara begged silently.

"Not really." _Because I was waiting for you, and listening for you, and going out of my mind._ Toph's resolve had begun to waver from the moment that Katara touched her, and the slow stroke of a thumb across her knuckles threatened to brush aside the last of her resistance. "I was training," she added.

"All night?" asked Katara, vowing to have a word with Sokka when she next saw her brother; in fact, she envisioned herself having many words with Sokka and few of them were polite.

"I had a lot of training to do."

Toph heard the sharp intake of Katara's breath and mentally kicked herself. She was alone with Katara for the first time in weeks, so she should try speaking honestly.

"I was waiting," she tried again. "I-I wanted to make sure that you got back safely. And in case you might… I thought maybe, you might want to talk. When you returned."

Toph rarely stammered and her rambling, slightly incoherent confession rekindled the warmth in Katara's heart. She couldn't hold back a soft giggle at the sensation. Toph stiffened and tried to pull away, but Katara leaned over and rested her head on Toph's shoulder.

"If I didn't know better, Toph Bei Fong, I might even think you were worried about me." She added, a teasing whisper into Toph's ear, "But it's okay if you don't want to admit it."

Toph opened her mouth twice, three times, but no sound came out. She turned her face away but not before Katara saw the pink blush stealing across her cheeks. Katara stifled another laugh; she knew that Toph refused to acknowledge the 'c' word, but she couldn't think of a better word than 'cute' to describe what she saw right now. Instead she smiled to herself and slid her hands to Toph's shoulders, guiding her closer.

Toph's pride made her stiff and unyielding, however. Her body screamed a protest as she resisted those hands that beckoned her home, but her mind railed more loudly. She was no child. She was Toph Bei Fong, not some baby to be held and comforted, or cooed over and petted.

"You don't have to do that." Her voice sounded unusually formal, even to her own ears. Katara grew still and, as the silence stretched between them, she wished she could see Katara's expression. She wished that she could read whatever emotions were running through the girl sitting mere inches away, and she mentally cursed her blindness again.

"I know," Katara replied softly, calmly. One of her hands slipped to the nape of Toph's neck and began drawing languid circles there as her other arm went around Toph's waist, loosely embracing her. "Now come here."

Toph released a deep sigh and hesitantly shifted a little closer. Her hands found Katara's waist and felt their way along her sides, over her back, mapping out the body that she could not see. A moment later, Toph found herself holding Katara as the waterbender's hands ran light patterns over her back. Katara was like the water seeping into the tiny cracks in a stone, moving effortlessly past all of the earthbender's guards, until Toph found that Katara had insinuated herself into her arms and lay against her. Toph sighed again, and this time Katara heard her own name breathed against her ear.

This was where she belonged. This moment, this place, was where she found comfort and meaning. A world turned upside-down by anxiety turned right-side-up again.

Toph had been afraid that she would lose her mind with jealousy and fear during the long hours of the night, but all of that faded away into inconsequence when she was reunited with the person she loved.

_Loved?_

It was such a strong word, but she could think of no other to describe these feelings. What else could describe this intense need to be in her presence at all times? There was no other way she could describe the growing hunger to touch and be touched in return. She didn't know how to explain the joyful ache that filled her whenever she heard that voice and knew that Katara saw her alone among the crowds.

Katara looked down in surprise as Toph pressed herself to her body and buried her face in Katara's shoulder. Her fists clenched tightly in Katara's shirt, crushing the fabric as the earthbender clung to her. She stroked one hand over Toph's hair and cheek, the other pulling Toph closer. Whatever thoughts had settled in Toph's mind and made her cling so tightly, Katara wanted to drive them away and the anxiety that they caused Toph. She folded herself around the smaller girl, pressing her cheek against black hair as she willed Toph to relax.

She needed to be closer. She needed to feel Katara everywhere against her and know that nothing would separate them. She pressed herself tightly into Katara's embrace until she was encompassed in her warmth. With every breath she could smell Katara's scent, could hear her heart pounding steadily beneath her ear, and as Katara continued to hold her, she realised that she would always be welcome here.

She loved Katara. At this moment, she could begin to believe that Katara loved her back.

Instead of showing her love, however, she had greeted Katara with anger and bitterness on her return. She had forced an apology where none was due, and the more tenderly that Katara treated her, the more urgently she needed to make things right.

After a moment, Katara realised that Toph was mumbling something into her shoulder. She lifted Toph's mouth from her shirt and tipped her chin up.

"I'm sorry," Toph murmured. Her pale green eyes looked towards the ground as Katara tried not to let her astonishment show. The older girl almost wondered if she had imagined the words when Toph spoke again.

"I'm sorry, Katara. I shouldn't have…" _Said the things I said? Implied that you're leading both Aang and me on? Acted like a jealous idiot?_

"It's okay—"

"It's not okay! I shouldn't have the things I did. I shouldn't have been so mad at you. I—" Toph was shushed by a finger pressed against her lips.

"If the next words are sorry, I don't want to hear them," Katara told her firmly. "Now stop apologising."

Toph opened her mouth to interrupt, until Katara silenced her with a kiss. One kiss became two, three, many, until she could no longer count them all. When Katara drew back, Toph looked slightly stunned.

"Thank you for caring for me so much," Katara whispered.

Toph turned a deep shade of crimson and started to stammer, but she made no attempt to deny Katara's words. Katara smiled and rubbed their noses together, hearing Toph falter, then pressed a kiss to Toph's chin, her cheek, her temple, enjoying Toph's increasingly jumbled sentences until at last she gave up trying to talk. Then Katara found warm lips on hers, the kiss deepening as lips spoke without words.

Katara almost cried out with loss when Toph jerked back. She remained motionless in Katara's arms, an intent look of concentration on her face. Before Katara could ask what was wrong, she heard the whoosh of air and the crisp snap as a glider's sails were closed. Toph tried to yank herself away but the waterbender tightened her grip, refusing to let go. She rubbed her fingertips gently against Toph's back, trying to soothe away the sudden tension there.

"What is it, Aang?" Katara asked, sparing him a brief glance before turning back to Toph.

"I, uh…" Aang fiddled with the staff in his hands as he tried to absorb the scene in front of him. The sight of Katara hugging Toph meant nothing, or it _should _have meant nothing, but he couldn't escape the feeling that he was intruding on something intimate. Toph bristled with tension, the muscles in her bare arms standing in stark relief as her hands tightened around fistfuls of Katara's shirt. Katara pressed her cheek to Toph's forehead once more and murmured something too quietly for Aang to hear.

"Is Toph okay?" Aang unconsciously lowered his voice to a whisper, as if any loud noise might cause Toph to leap up and bolt like a startled deer. He found himself leaning forward to hear Katara's answer while he dared not step any closer.

"She's completely exhausted. She wore herself out instead of getting any sleep last night." Katara heard the warm note of affection in her own voice, but she no longer cared if she sounded a little love-struck. As much as she wanted to kiss Toph's forehead, however, she would not do so in front of Aang.

"Are you sure? Should I bring a doctor from the village?" Aang asked fretfully. Toph was so quiet and still that he was growing worried.

"Aang." This time Katara did look at him, and her patient expression made him feel like a fool. Of course they didn't need a healer. He blushed and shuffled his feet sheepishly.

"Sorry. That was stupid of me."

"Don't worry. Toph just needs some rest and a good meal." Katara leaned in to address Toph quietly and smiled at the response she received. "If you want to help out, Aang, you could help Sokka cook breakfast."

"What are you going to do?" Aang asked, watching as Toph returned her head to Katara's shoulder. She must be utterly exhausted, he realised, if she was too tired to even sit upright and resorted to leaning on Katara instead.

"I'm going to stay here with Toph," Katara replied. "We'll come back to camp when she's feeling a bit better."

"I understand." Aang didn't really understand what was going on between them. At least Katara appeared to be on friendly terms with Toph once more. His casual suggestion of encouraging Sokka and Toph to find one another had elicited such a furious outburst the day before that he had feared that Katara would lash out at Toph, but that appeared not to have happened. Rather than attempt to puzzle it out, however, he snapped open his glider and leapt into the air.

"Is he gone?" Toph asked grouchily.

"Yes. It's safe to come out from my shoulder now," Katara teased.

"I happen to quite like your shoulder," Toph muttered under her breath.

"I noticed. You seem quite attached to it."

"Oh har de har har," Toph retorted with a smile. When Katara began to disentangle herself from their embrace, she groaned in protest. "Katara, I was joking."

"Really? I'd never have guessed," replied Katara. "Come on, up." She helped the reluctant earthbender to her feet and led her away from the scattered rocks to the grassy knoll by the river. She knew exactly where the thickest grass grew and Toph needed no encouragement to lie down; she threw herself flat on her face, breaking her fall at the last second. A calm smile spread across her face as she snuggled into the ground, letting herself relax at last. Katara lay down beside her before powerful hands grabbed her and pulled her against Toph's side. She nestled her head on a narrow shoulder, feeling herself smile to match Toph's. Her uncomfortable night in the inn was all but forgotten as she pressed her ear against Toph's heart and basked in her solid warmth.

Toph felt Katara nestled into her shoulder and smirked to herself. _Now who's attached to whom, Sweetness?_ She said nothing, however, because those words might lead onto other words that she wasn't quite ready to say yet. Words like _please stay _and _don't let go_, words that would reveal the true depths of her need.

If she spoke, she might admit that she wanted nothing more to lie here until the sun went down, and then she wanted to lie beside Katara through the night. Not even the thought of breakfast could distract her. She lay in the grass with the possessive weight of Katara's arms wrapped around her waist and the thought of belonging no longer bothered her as it once might have. She found herself enjoying the thought. One day, she might even be able to express it. Right now, however, she wanted nothing more than to be allowed to enjoy this moment and every moment that came afterwards for a little longer.

"Katara, are you still awake?" Toph asked quietly. Katara murmured an affirmation and Toph hurried to continue speaking, before her nerve failed her completely. "I just wanted to tell you… in spite of what I said earlier… I _do _trust you, you know."

"But you don't trust Aang," Katara responded gently. Toph had the decency to look embarrassed and Katara added, "I can understand why. He does have a tendency to try and flirt with your girlfriend."

"My… girlfriend?" Toph had never given much thought to that word before but she enjoyed the straightforward way that Katara had laid claim to her. Their relationship, never talked about, suddenly took on a more tangible quality.

Katara heard the wistful note in Toph's voice and smiled. Toph sounded so surprised and delighted, as if her most secret wish had just come true. Katara could only hope that it had.

"Katara…" Toph's tone was serious and Katara waited patiently until she found the words to continue. "I hope you had a good time at the festival. And… and if Aang wants to take you to any more, I hope you'll go."

"Don't be absurd." Katara's tone was equally serious as she gazed down at Toph. "If I go to any more festivals, the only person I want to go with is you."

"Katara, don't." Toph closed her eyes against the sorrow. "I don't want you to miss any, and you wouldn't enjoy yourself with me." Hearing Katara draw a deep breath to begin arguing, she hastily continued, "I can't watch the fireworks. I can't see any plays or performances. I can't play any games. Heck, I can't even dance."

To her surprise, Katara merely chuckled.

"That's all right, Toph. Plays can be dull and even I can't always tell what's going on. Fireworks are pretty and games are amusing, but they aren't important to me. And if you want, I can always teach you to dance."

"You're offering to teach an earthbender to dance. A blind earthbender at that," Toph replied sceptically.

"If you step on my toes, I expect you to make it up to me." Katara nuzzled Toph's neck and Toph knew exactly how she would make amends with Katara if she did such a thing.

"In the meantime," the waterbender continued, her lips a hair's breadth from Toph's ear, "this is exactly where I want to stay. Now or tomorrow, there's nowhere else I'd rather be." Her voice dropped to a whisper as she added, "So please, let me stay here. Be here with me when I wake up."

"Don't worry." Toph lifted Katara's hand to her lips and pressed a gentle kiss to her fingers before restoring it to its rightful place around her waist. "I'm not going anywhere." She smiled nervously, barely able to believe the words coming out of her mouth, and knowing that this was just the first of many such declarations. "I won't let you go."

"Promise?" Katara forced herself to sound light-hearted, but she found herself holding her breath for the answer.

Toph answered by lifting Katara's chin and drawing her into a lingering kiss. She smiled sleepily up at Katara and murmured something. As Katara settled back into her arms, she heard Toph's breathing change, growing slower and deeper. As the earthbender fell into a deep slumber, her last words played again in Katara's mind.

_"I promise, Katara."_

* * *

_--Fin--_


End file.
